A Paw Partnership: How the Veterinary Industry is Poised to Transform Over the Next Decade

A PAW PARTNERSHIP

A PAW PARTNERSHIP

How the Veterinary Industry Is Poised to Transform over the Next Decade

Neha Taneja

Contents

DEDICATION

INTRODUCTION

Part 1. THE HUMANIZATION OF PET CARE

MY FIRST PET

THE ROLE OF EACH TEAM MEMBER

THE TECHNOLOGY OF VETERINARY MEDICINE

Part 2. THE REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCES OF VETERINARY PROFESSIONALS

THE PEOPLE OF PET CARE

THE REALITY OF PET CARE

BRIDGE THE GAP

Part 3. ADAPTING TO CHANGE

CREATING A POSITIVE MINDSET

TOOLS FOR VETERINARY PROFESSIONALS

ORGANIZING PROCESSES

Part 4. PET CARE 2.0

A VETERINARY PRACTICE IN 2030

THE EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING OF PETS

THE FUTURE OF PET OWNERSHIP

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

APPENDIX

New Degree Press

Copyright © 2020 Neha Taneja

All rights reserved.

A PAW PARTNERSHIP

How the Veterinary Industry Is Poised to Transform over the Next Decade

ISBN:

978-1-63676-610-2 Paperback

978-1-63676-276-0 Kindle Ebook

978-1-63676-277-7 Ebook

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to my true soulmates and forever companions, my three German Shepherds: Heidi, Simba, and Leo. They inspired me to become the best leader I could be and a pet health advocate in aspiration of preserving the human-animal bond. The love I have for my dogs and my pet patients throughout the years has made my dedication to them grow, leading to the development of this book.

To my parents, Deepti and Vijay, my sisters, Reema and Mahima, and my husband, Sunny. Thank you for always encouraging and supporting me through all of my endeavors. You have always encouraged me to pursue my passion and put my best foot forward. You have shown me how to care for others. You’ve led me on the path of believing in others and supporting them even when they may not believe in themselves. Taking those with great potential under our wings and helping them chase their dreams turns out to be a life-changing experience that significantly humbles you. You have taught me unconditional love and selflessness.

To the pet patients and teams I have worked with throughout my career in veterinary medicine. You have inspired me to adopt a progressive way of thinking and explore ways on how to improve our future. You have solidified the importance of a team and how together we can make a bigger impact in the lives of our pet patients and each other. The past and the present lay the foundation for the new heights we can achieve and pave the way to our future.

INTRODUCTION

Bailey, Bailey stay with me girl. Her eyes fluttered, barely staying open, and her heart beat a mile a minute. Bailey, a mixed breed adult dog, came rushing in on a stretcher, with wounds to her face and blood dripping from her back legs. Dr. Jackson immediately called Mike and I to help stabilize her. We established an airway, hooked her up to monitoring devices, and started manual ventilation and chest compressions. Bailey wasn’t going to survive. She was hit by a car, and the impact to her body was more severe than she could handle. She fought hard and took her last breath a few moments after she arrived. Her owner insisted we keep trying until the rest of her family could say goodbye. We continued CPR, in the hope a miracle would happen, and to ensure Bailey’s family could see her one last time. These little miracles were what we hoped for even when the odds were slim. Dr. Jackson taught us to never give up.

I was barely eighteen when Bailey came in, with my entire career ahead of me. At the time, I didn’t know what I wanted or how my future looked until I got my foot in the door. I had no idea how my passion for a part-time summer job would lead to a lifelong career. Bailey’s case was one of the first emergency cases I assisted with while working in a small animal practice. All the skills I learned clicked at that moment.

Medical and technical skills weren’t the only skills I needed to succeed in this profession. I learned the value of professionalism, compassion, and teamwork. I also learned that staying focused during a crisis requires immense concentration. They were skills I would use every day. For example, I had to maintain a calm demeanor and focus on trying to keep Bailey alive while providing support to her family who lost their best friend and companion. I knew that the time for processing loss wasn’t there when I needed it. The emotional toll Bailey’s death had on me would catch up with me several hours later. Until then, I had to push through the day with a smile on my face and continue delivering outstanding care for the next pet and client.

Over the past decade, I’ve seen many conscious attempts to change the culture in small practices and focus it on the pet’s health and excellent customer service. But what happens when an employee loses a family member and calls out? How do we adapt when an employee submits a resignation letter? How do we respond when an upset client erupts at the reception desk at the very moment a patient emergency occurs in the treatment room? What happens when an overbooked appointment schedule interferes with our ability to train a new employee on the systems and processes of the clinic?

Because of Bailey, I began a path filled with unique emotional turmoil and its own industry-specific challenges. Not only have I learned the skills necessary to survive as a pet health professional, but I’ve also observed the factors that often contribute to my colleagues’ successes and failures.

I’ve learned that it takes more than skill to combat the challenges of this field. We thrive as individuals when we share a commitment to one another and to establishing the grounds of a high-functioning team. We aren’t there yet. But we can get there if we can overcome these industry-wide challenges: turnover, burnout, compassion fatigue, and poor work-life balance.

Common Misperceptions about the Veterinary Profession

Many misperceptions exist about the veterinary industry. One of the most common I have heard revolves around the notion that veterinarians aren’t real doctors.¹ Au contraire! Veterinarians attend a four-year college and complete pre-veterinary school, as well as attend a four-year veterinary medicine program. Thereafter, the governing board of veterinary medicine requires state licensure to practice as a veterinarian. Additionally, veterinarians treat multiple animal species and learn about the body systems of large animals, small animals, exotic pets, reptiles, and more. Veterinarians receive schooling to build their knowledge in various areas of medicine ranging from general practice to surgery and specialty, making them experts in the field.

I have also found many people think veterinarians make a substantial amount of money.² Veterinarians receive a base salary, and many are given the option to earn commission. This model causes stress for all veterinarians, but especially new grads and younger veterinarians who work extended hours to obtain advanced clinical experience. As a result, they have to make a choice of either supporting their financial situation or furthering clinic experience. Vets struggle to pay enormous student loans along with their other financial responsibilities. As of 2019, veterinarians accumulate an average of $167,534 in student loan debt, with the top 20 percent owing more than $200,000. As of February 2020, the average annual salary for a full-time veterinarian, working in a hospital, is approximately $73,000 for a recent graduate and $95,000 for a veterinarian with more than one year of working experience.³

Lastly, I have found that people think a day in the life of a veterinary team consists of an abundance of heartwarming experiences because they see puppies and kittens every day. In reality, there are serious challenges. Like many jobs, there are good and bad days. The assumption that veterinary teams experience high levels of job satisfaction is far from accurate. Yes, veterinary teams do treat puppies and kittens, but many of those puppies and kittens die. Nearly every day, a veterinarian delivers heartbreaking news to a family losing a loved one. Several times per week, the veterinarian along with the assistance of a technician or assistant euthanizes an animal in pain.

Veterinarians often care for patients their entire lives and frequently care for multiple generations of pets from the same family. Seeing pets from their first hellos to their final goodbyes wears on the staff. These long, intimate relationships take a toll on the professionals. After so many years of seeing the same animals with recurring problems, seeing terminal diseases take beloved patients, and long hours of demanding emotional requirements every day of the week, vets and animal care professionals experience compassion, fatigue, and burnout. Many professionals who experience compassion, fatigue, and burnout leave the profession, become quickly irritable, and spread that negativity across other team members. Some even stop practicing altogether or commit suicide.

The Problem with Misperceptions

Veterinary medicine exhausts those in the field, emotionally and physically. For example, most of our patients don’t have pet insurance, and when they’re unwell, they can’t speak to tell us what is wrong. Patient advocacy, therefore, falls on the veterinary staff—which includes the veterinarian, veterinary assistants and technicians, customer care representatives, and hospital managers, as well as the grooming and kennel teams. More than seventy thousand veterinarians in the US face job challenges that lead to disproportionately high suicide rates, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A CDC study published in January 2019 shows that veterinarians have the second highest suicide rate, compared to other professions, with male veterinarians 2.1 times more likely and female veterinarians 3.5 times more likely to commit suicide compared to the general population.⁴

These trends ripple out to other roles within the profession, with veterinary technicians also at risk. According to an article published in the Annual Review of Psychology,

Veterinary professionals are exposed to raw emotions day in and day out. On top of witnessing the suffering of patients and the grief of clients, we have other stressors in our profession that contribute to burnout. A demographic study, conducted in 2016 by the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America (NAVTA), confirmed that the number one reason why veterinary technicians leave the field is insufficient pay. This is followed by lack of respect from the employer (20 percent), burnout (14 percent), lack of benefits, childcare difficulties, lack of respect for the profession, and compassion fatigue. This has led to the suicide rate for veterinary technicians to be 5 times more likely for male technicians, and 2.3 times more likely for female technicians.⁵

Veterinarians frequently find themselves euthanizing a pet with a treatable injury or illness because the pet owner can’t afford the remedy, which might include costly surgeries. For the compassionate individuals who tend to enter the field of veterinary medicine that’s a heavy burden to carry on their conscience.

You can say you’re going to be stoic and put it out of your mind and say it’s part of being a veterinarian, says McCauley, a pet parent to a dog, a cat, and a pig, but the reality is over time, that weighs on you.⁶ In her 2020 Ted Talk, Dr. Melanie Bowden addressed the deadly trend, as well. We have a problem within our industry where more veterinarians are leaving the field than coming in. Five percent of veterinarians commit suicide.⁷ Suicide has become an epidemic plaguing the profession and clearly shows that a high percentage of veterinarians are not experiencing job satisfaction in addition to the financial burden they carry.

My Responsibility to Bring Awareness to the Veterinary Industry

Having worked in the veterinary field since 2008, I have a diverse and well-rounded perspective of the challenges and obstacles veterinary employees and employers face. I feel called to bring awareness and support to the profession. Each member of the veterinary team has chosen their job because they care for animals and people. We love our pet patients and want to provide the best care for them.

In 2008, as a high school graduate, I joined a veterinary practice and worked my way up through many positions in the clinic and the company. I started in an entry-level position as a kennel attendant. My curiosity as to how the veterinary team treated their patients led me on a path driven by passion but fueled by determination to reach my professional goals and help animals and people.

Several years later, my role evolved into that of hospital manager. From that vantage point, I could see endless possibilities to improve our standards for managing and leading a practice. I learned to coach my team, build on individual strengths and weaknesses through collaboration, and leverage skills in a way that moved our team forward. I learned how to interact and build relationships with customers and clients.

Through each step of my personal development journey, I came to realize that few people outside our industry have an awareness of the blood, sweat, and—indeed—tears that go into working in this profession. But what I failed to realize